55 



long period without diminishing in number, in 

 spite of the occasional great tides that flood the 

 whole island, and of multitudes of hungry eagles 

 and caranchos always on the look out for stray 

 sucklings. Many years ago, while some gauchos 

 were driving a troop of half wild cows near the 

 shore on the neighboring mainland, a heifer took 

 to the water and succeeded in swimming to the 

 island, where she was lost to her owner. About 

 a year later this animal was seen by a man who 

 had gone to the island to cut rushes for thatching 

 purposes. The cow and the pigs, to the number of 

 about twenty-five or twenty- six, were lying fast 

 asleep in a small grassy hollow where he found 

 them, the cow stretched out at full length on the 

 ground, and the pigs grouped or rather heaped 

 around her; for they were all apparently ambi- 

 tious to rest with their heads pillowed on her, so 

 that she was almost concealed under them. Pres- 

 ently one of the drove, more wakeful than his 

 fellows, became aware of his presence and gave 

 the alarm, whereupon they started up like one 

 animal and vanished into a rush-bed. The cow, 

 thus doomed to live "alone, yet not alone," was 

 subsequently seen on several occasions by the 

 rush-cutters, always with her fierce followers 

 grouped round her like a bodyguard. This con- 

 tinued for some years, and the fame of the cow 

 that had become the leader and queen of the wild 

 island pigs was spread abroad in the valley; then 

 a human being, who was not a " sentimentalist, " 



